(a) The insurance carrier shall make all medical benefit
and burial payments by:
(1) check or other readily negotiable instrument; or
(2) electronic transfer by mutual agreement to an account
designated in writing by the payee.
(b) Except as provided by §126.2 of this title
(relating to Payment of Benefits to Minors), insurance carriers shall
make all payments of income or death benefits by:
(1) check or other readily negotiable instrument to
the order of the claimant; or
(2) electronic transfer if required to under subsection
(f) of this section or by mutual agreement between the insurance carrier
and the claimant including an access card under §124.6 of this
title (relating to Electronic Transfer Payments Made Through an Access
Card).
(c) An insurance carrier that routinely pays benefits
by check or other negotiable instrument to the claimant drawn on an
out-of-state financial institution shall accompany each instrument
with written information about the insurance carrier's office location
and telephone number where the claimant may call, at the insurance
carrier's expense, to obtain help with cashing the instrument, if
necessary.
(d) A claimant may request that the insurance carrier
make benefit payments by electronic transfer to a personal bank account
by providing the insurance carrier in writing: the name and routing
transit number of the financial institution and the account number
and type of account that the claimant wants the benefits electronically
transferred to. The insurance carrier shall provide the claimant with
a form to fill out the information required by this subsection within
seven days of receiving a request for such a form from the claimant.
(e) Subsections (f) - (i) of this section apply to
income or death benefit payments due on or after September 1, 2000.
(f) Unless relieved by subsection (g) of this section,
the insurance carrier shall make income or death benefit payments
by electronic transfer if the claimant:
(1) requests in writing that payment be made by electronic
transfer;
(2) provides the information required by subsection
(d) of this section; and
(3) is reasonably expected to be entitled to receive
income or death benefits for a period of eight weeks or more from
the point that paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection are satisfied.
(4) This subsection does not apply to electronic transfer
payments made through an access card under §124.6 of this title.
(g) An insurance carrier is relieved of the responsibility
to make payment of temporary income benefits, impairment income benefits,
and supplemental income benefits by electronic transfer if the mode
of payment has been switched at the request of the claimant three
times after initially changing to electronic payments.
(h) The insurance carrier shall initiate payment by
electronic transfer starting with the first income or death benefit
payment due on or after the 21st day after the requirements of subsection
(f) of this section are met but shall continue to timely make payments
by check until the insurance carrier initiates benefit delivery by
electronic transfer.
(i) If the claimant has previously been receiving income
or death benefit payments by electronic transfer and wants to receive
benefits by check, the insurance carrier shall initiate income or
death benefit delivery by check starting with the first benefit payment
due to the claimant on or after the 7th day after receiving a written
request.
(j) Effective date. Unless otherwise specified, this
section is effective for income or death benefit payments due on or
after June 1, 2015.
|
Source Note: The provisions of this §124.5 adopted to be effective January 11, 1991, 16 TexReg 116; amended to be effective November 28, 1999, 24 TexReg 10333; amended to be effective June 1, 2015, 40 TexReg 332 |